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The Good Life - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Breaking Tradition
        
        When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer deals with societal expectations within the education system. Whitman represents the dullness of the classroom through a repetition of "When" at the start of lines as the learn'd astronomer teaches astronomy in a very traditional, by the numbers manner. It is only when the speaker grows sick of this teaching style and breaks norms by leaving to witness the stars themselves that the poem takes on a mystical, dream-like quality. The speaker contrasts the tiredness and sickness of the traditional lecture with the serenity of experiencing the night sky for themself.
        
        When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer positions Nature as the ultimate teacher. The contrast between the mundanity of the classroom and the mystic beauty of the night sky demonstrates that personal experiences with nature say more than any lecture could.
        
        When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer emphasizes the power of living in the moment. Breaking out of the mundanity of the classroom to go outside and experience nature is an impulsive choice, yet one that brings with it a great deal of fulfillment and joy.
        
        Museé des Beaux Arts demonstrates the way in which humans will not typically help each other. By referencing the works of "The Old Masters" in which the suffering of others is ignored while people go about their days, the speaker positions inaction in the face of suffering as a fundamentally human trait. However, given the historical context—the poem was written in response to western democracies ignoring the rise of fascism—it is unlikely Auden was commenting passively. The speaker uses the example of a torturer's horse to show that those who do not break this human tradition are not innocents, as they uphold the torturer even if they do not commit the act themselves.
        
        The Second Coming runs counter to the idea that the breaking of tradition is necessarily always a good thing. It demonstrates the violence and loss of innocence that comes from a rebellion, and portrays the second coming—the dawn of a new era—as a hideous monster, rather than a revelatory, uplifting moment. "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity" demonstrates that no one comes out of a rebellion—the ultimate break of tradition—completely innocently.
        
        The Ballad of Orange and Grape utilizes the imagery of pouring the wrong juice into the wrong container to discuss issues surrounding binary systems. In the line "(How are we going to believe what we read and we write and we hear and we say and we do?)" the speaker calls explicit attention to the idea that if things continue to be mislabeled like that all sense will break down. It speaks to the idea that misinformation and strife can be perpetrated through false labels.
        
        The Ballad of Orange and Grape carries an element of racial politics to it. Set in twentieth century Harlem, the poem shows a city that isn't doing too well--it has drug problems and violence--but also contains hope as it shows the innocence of the black and brown children who live there, and particularly the way they ignore the mislabeling of the man at the hot dog stand.
  - - - Race
        
        Written at a time in which black people were enslaved and at their most unequal, On Being Brought from Africa to America shows how poetry can bring a voice to the marginalized and change perceptions about race. By portraying her conversion to Christianity, the speaker tells white Christians who saw themselves as superior--"Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train". The speaker shows that though white Christians may believe black people to be inferior, they are in fact equals in the eyes of God.
        
        The line "Once I redemption neither sought nor knew" undercuts the power of the Christian God by showing that redemption was never an inherent goal of the speaker. Rather, it was something that they had to be shown and taught by regular people, which undermines the power of the God.
        
        not an elegy for Mike Brown discusses the treatment of black Americans in the wake of the police killing of Mike Brown. It points out how violence towards black people is essentially ignored by greater society, and how it occurs so often that it's almost become mundane. "are we not worthy / of a city of ash?" calls for the lives of black people to be acknowledged in the same way that the lives of white people are.
        
        Although not an elegy for Mike Brown is full of frustration at the unending violence towards black people, it ends on a hopeful note. The closing lines "look at what the lord has made. / above Missouri, sweet smoke." show that people finally care enough to do something to try and break the cycle.
        
        Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation comments on the Native American experience on multiple levels. Its Abecedarian framing device speaks to how Native Americans were forced to learn English over their traditional languages. The speaker critiques the atrocities Christians have performed towards Native Americans, positioning angels as only white and making explicit historical references to colonization and the reservation system.
        
        Abecedarian criticizes colonization, Christianity and the American state. It calls out the whiteness of Christianity--despite its attempts to convert non-white people to it--and the role that it played in genocidal colonialism. The lines "You better hope you never see angels on the rez. If you do, they'll be marching you off to / Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they've mapped out for us." directly references the American state's reservation system, and how Native Americans had their land stolen and then were sent on deadly marches to reservations which often had unlivable conditions.
  - - - Anti-Authority
        
        Ozymandias portrays the timeless fall of tyrants. The lines "its sculptor well those passions read / Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things" contains a double meaning which critiques both the dictators of the past and those of the present. Frowns, wrinkled lips and sneers are all that survive of Ozymandias' empire, and they yet survive on modern dictators which are called lifeless. Ozymandias shows how empires will crumble, and it is the memories of the torments an emperor committed to build them that will be best remembered.
        
        Dulce et Decorum Est tells of the horrors of World War I. The vast majority of the poem focuses around disgusting imagery of men suffering, painting an extremely dark and dismal picture of the war. This portrait lends incredible weight to the final lines that critique the telling of "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" to "children ardent for some desperate glory". The Latin phrase means "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country", and the poem shows how, throughout history, people in authority have used the same lies and same propaganda to get regular people to fight and die in their horrific wars.
        
        Dulce et Decorum Est is anti-authoritarian because it specifically takes aim at the authority telling the old lie, however it also breaks tradition in the way it deconstructs the cultural narrative of glory in war.
        
        Punishment ties two moments of abuse of power together through time. Framed using the past setting of a woman punished for adultery, the speaker shows how, even though people may say they would have stood up for someone in the past, they are likely to stand idly by as similar punishment happens in the present. The poem's focus on women as the victims also serves to show how authority often adversely affects those in marginalized groups, and how those who are unlikely to be harmed by the people in power will stand idly by as it does.
        
        Punishment, Musee des Beaux Arts and not an elegy for Mike Brown all deal with the idea of inaction in the face of suffering through various cultural and historical lenses.
        
        Punishment links the past rebellion of women through an act of adultery to a contemporary rebellion of relations with an opposing side and shows that the tradition of punishing women for intimate expressions of rebellion continues.
        
        The speaker in Punishment says that he almost loves the adulterous woman punished in the past, yet knows that there's hypocrisy in that as he ignores the similar women suffering in his time.
- - - - Nature
        
        I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud portrays the beauty of nature and the ethereal, lofty sensation that can come from existing within it. The first three stanzas have a lackadaisical, relaxed atmosphere to them as the speaker simply wanders through nature and drinks in the beautiful sights of these daffodils. So beautiful are they that they can uplift the speaker's mood even when it is dour. This poem speaks to the renewing power of nature--the way it uplifts spirits and brings about joy.
        
        I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud relishes in the beauty of Nature in the moment. Its speaker wanders the fields, drinking in the sights of the daffodils for three stanzas. When the speaker is later disheartened, this memory of being one with nature serves to replenish their spirit.
        
        The World Is Too Much With Us bemoans the way in which humanity has given away its connection to nature. The poem has an anti-capitalist edge in the lines "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;-- / Little we see in Nature that is ours;". It critiques the focus on consumption over a proper integration with nature. The poems anti-capitalist message continues with the lines "I'd rather be / A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; / So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, / Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;" that call for a return to Nature and a desire for the fulfillment that would come from doing so.
        
        Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird shows the breadth and beauty of even a single animal in nature. In addition to a variety of descriptions and interpretations of a blackbird, the poem also comments on man's place in nature. The lines "A man and a woman and a blackbird / Are one" demonstrate that humanity is just as much a part of nature as a blackbird is. Later, the lines "The river is moving. / The blackbird must be flying." portray the harmony of nature in simplistic terms--it is ever moving in sync.
  - - - In The Moment
  - - - Love
        
        Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 plays with cliché as it breaks the traditional formula of the comparative love sonnet. Rather than comparing his love to things that are traditionally beautiful, the speaker instead defines her with things that are not beautiful. In doing so, the speaker proclaims that "I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare". The speaker is demonstrating that love in spite of faults and love that is honest rather than overly praising is stronger and rarer than is suggested in the clichés of a traditional love sonnet's lofty comparisons.
        
        Sonnet 130 breaks the literary tradition of lofty comparisons in love poetry. Shakespeare turns the style on its head and in doing so demonstrates a more powerful, rarer love.
        
        To His Coy Mistress makes a strong argument for carpe diem. The speaker is written as if he is trying to convince a woman that they mustn't wait to make love, a break from the lengthy courting rituals of the era it was written. "But at my back I always hear / Time's winged chariot hurrying near;" speaks to the nature of human mortality and how love is an opportunity that must be seized when the chance arises. The speaker acknowledges that taking their time and nurturing the love like a vegetable for eons would likely make it stronger, but it makes the argument that by the time that's done the speaker and his subject will both likely be in the grave.
        
        At a time when long courting rituals and waiting for love until marriage was the norm, To His Coy Mistress breaks this tradition by portraying love as something to be seized in the moment.
        
        To His Coy Mistress is deeply about living in the moment. The main point of the poem is the idea that love is something to be seized, rather than something that must be worried over until it's too late to be truly experienced.
        
        Sonnet 32 goes against the typical love sonnet form as it tells a tale of doubt and uncertainty. As seen in the lines "I seemed not one / For such man's love!--more like an out-of-tune / Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth / To spoil his song with" the speaker doesn't feel worthy of the love of her partner. She feels as though she wronged her partner for entering into a relationship with them. Yet the closing lines, "For perfect strains may float / 'Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced" shows that sometimes, people who believe themselves unworthy of love can still find it with the right partner.